Page 54 of Another June with You

Maggie placed the camera bag next to the box and unzipped it, revealing a variety of lenses. She pushed a section of sandy blonde hair away from her face. “We brought a few fixed lenses—a 28mm, a 50, 85, 100mm macro. There’s even a 28-300 L series in here for ya. And there are enough memory cards to cover two weddings.”

“Where did all this come from?” she asked.

“We had a few we weren’t using today, and the others came from photographer friends of ours.”

She hoped after all the tears shed yesterday that she wouldn’t end up crying again today, but tears sprung to her eyes, and she covered her face with her hands and let them come, the stress and worry dissolving away.

“Thank you,” she mumbled into her hands.

Maggie’s arms wrapped around her. “We’ve got your back, girl. We always will.”

Shannon moved from Maggie into the kitchen and grabbed a tissue, wiping away the tears. “I don’t know what to say or how to thank you.”

“Just pay it forward someday.” Simon leaned back against her kitchen counter.

“You know we would’ve done anything to help you.” Maggie moved next to her husband, his arm wrapping around her lower back and resting on her waist.

They were so sweet together, and Shannon’s heart ached for Micah. She turned away before she started crying again and began looking through the equipment, cataloguing what she had to work with.

“How did the meeting with Vern go?”

Shannon winced at the question.

“That bad?” His brow furrowed. “I thought it was a done deal.”

She looked at him sadly. “He sold the building.”

“No way.”

“Yep.”

“Maybe you can rent it from the new owner,” he suggested.

“He already has plans for the space.”

Simon’s shoulders sank. “I’m so sorry, Shannon. That’s not cool.”

A sigh escaped her. “It’s his building. He had to make the right choice for him, I guess. Even if it wasn’t how I thought things were gonna go.”

“I’m very familiar with that feeling,” Maggie told her. “If things had gone the way I’d planned, my life would look very different right now.” She turned into Simon and wrapped her arms around his waist. “But God had something better for me.”

Shannon smiled, knowing what Maggie had been through with a broken engagement years ago.

“God’s got something amazing planned for you, Shannon. I believe that.”

She wasn’t so sure, and that must’ve shown in her expression.

“You do know that, right?”

Shannon shrugged, not making eye contact.

Maggie walked over and put an arm around her. “When I was at a low point and my life seemed to be falling apart, when I didn’t believe God was listening to me, my family reminded me that God sees the big picture when we can’t. He knows the plans He has for us, and He wants our happiness. He really does.”

The tears burned behind Shannon’s eyes again. Deep down, she believed that. But if God knew having a family with Micah would make her happy, why would He take away her ability to have children? She didn’t understand.

“But He wants us to rely on Him to find that happiness,” Maggie continued. “In His time, not ours. It may not seem like it now, when things aren’t going how you want them to, but all things work together for good to those that love God. Don’t forget that.”

With Maggie’s words and her quote of a beloved verse in the book of Romans, something in Shannon clicked. She hadn’t been relying on God at all. She’d been closed off to Him for a very long time—from the moment she found out she couldn’t have kids, really. She hadn’t trusted that God was working things out for her. She’d only seen the things that were taken away from her. What might she have missed out on while she’d been trying to find happiness on her own?

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